Aphrodite's Maze
by Phoenix on cloud nine
Summary: Little oneshot for you ;D Pure fluff and a tiny bit of slash. Howince obviously ;D


**Sorry for the crappy title!!! Ok, I've got a little writer's block for 'Boosh on Mars', so please be patient :) I asked my sister for a random word and she said maze lol. So, I decided to do what anyone would do and write a fluffy fanfic. Based around a maze lol ^_^ Oh, and I wasn't sure what rating to give it. If you think a T's a bit too much, let me know ;)**

The sun was shining through the clouds as two men were stumbling through woodland. The trees whispered quietly to each other as they gently swayed from side to side. A wooden plank trail they had been following had slowly sunk into the mud through years of various shoes tramping over it.

One man was trying to keep up with the other, who was tramping through the wood vigorously. His white Chelsea boots were covered in mud, with leaf litter stuck to the bottom of them,

"Howard, wait!!" The other man turned and smiled at his friend trying to hop on one foot, attempting to clean his boots,

"They'll get muddy again y'know" He announced drily, enjoying the look on Vince's face that meant he was about to get some banter started.

"Bugger off, 'least I don't have flies all over me," He grinned as Howard started to swat through the air, clouds of flies surrounding him, "Anyway, why are we here again?" Vince continued. It was a good question. It was their only day off in god knows when, and they had no idea when they were going to get their next one. However much Vince could whine and wheedle, Naboo stood firm when it came to pay and holidays. So how Howard had managed to get Vince to walk through woodland on a sunny afternoon was anyone's guess.

"Because you said you were bored, and I suggested we go for a walk" Vince pulled a face,

"Yeah, I didn't think you meant through woods!"

"I thought you liked them! You were raised in one weren't you?"

"Yeah, not one that was always muddy and it never had any flies in it. Plus, that was a _forest_. Not a wood." Vince sighed, but bounded after Howard as he started to walk again. He scowled as he stood in a particularly wet, muddy patch. Still, he followed Howard through the sun drenched wood. He couldn't help looking at Howard as he walked. Vince knew that he had developed feelings for his best friend after that kiss on the roof, and was sure he felt the sexual tension Howard had been on about. He felt so depressed some days, when he looked at Howard, who smiled back in a friendly way. Howard was probably the one person on earth he would never be able to have. He was handsome and completely unaware of it, making him irresistible to Vince, but the small, logical bit at the back of his brain sometimes escaped, telling him how stupid it would be to even attempt to tell Howard how he felt.

"Look, we're almost out now!" Howard shouted back to him, making his heart melt.

"Genius!" The excitable tone in his voice stemming from relief of being out of that maze and the way Howard told him everything. Even the tiny pieces of information that he already knew.

"Come on, we've got a date" He joked, making Vince blush, a thousand thoughts rushing through his mind at once,

"W-What?" He stuttered,

"Well you don't think I made you tramp through all of that for nothing?" Howard asked, and Vince shrugged,

"Seems the kind of thing you'd do to get back at me for something" Howard smiled and cocked his head to the side, making Vince strain his eyes in a certain direction. Said eyes then lit up as he saw something in the distance.

"A maze!" He exclaimed, a slight childish tone ringing in his excited voice, "Can we go in it?" Howard nodded and chuckled as Vince beamed and grabbed onto his hand and pulled him toward it, the older man's stomach doing loops and all sorts at the contact. He knew he had feelings for Vince. He'd always had them, but had squashed them down, covered them up with jazz and stationary.

They got to the entrance of it, no one else around, apart from a few squirrels whisking up and down the trees. Howard wanted to read the plaques at the start, but Vince pulled a face,

"C'mon Howard, you can read any old time! I'll race you to the centre if you hurry!" Howard smiled,

"How about you start while I read these, last one to the centre has to…" He struggled with the consequences, but Vince chipped in,

"Has to do whatever the other one asks!" His eyes gleamed brightly, but there was no malice in there as he said it. So Howard nodded and said,

"On the count of three then, one, two…" Vince sped off, leaving Howard to laugh as he read the plaques. The first one made him laugh some more, as it told the reader how to get to the centre. As his eyes moved to the second one, they widened. The maze was called 'Aphrodite's maze'. Apparently, if a couple meet in the middle and admit their love, they would be together forever. Any other time, he would probably have scoffed at the soppiness, but it got to him deeply, and he sighed, breath coming out like a ghost in the crisp autumn air.

He'd had enough and decided to enter the maze. After reading the plaque, he managed to get into the centre in no time at all, worrying slightly that Vince wasn't there yet. Would he be lost forever? Maybe they were doomed to be apart for always, never quite being able to reach each other. He was panicking quite a lot by now, but suddenly there was a rustle in the branches as he heard a familiar gasp from one of the corridors of the maze.

Vince had ran through the whole of it, breath heaving and fingers catching on the twigs sticking out of the hedges, as he had been running them along it all the way.

"No way!" Vince pouted, "How did you get here first? You didn't come in for _ages_!" Howard smiled,

"On one of those plaques it said how to get to the centre," He enjoyed the look on the younger man's face as he said that, and then remembered what they had agreed on, "What did we say the loser had to do?" He asked, knowing full well. Vince glowered, in a friendly way,

"I have to do whatever you want" He said, wishing more than ever that he had gotten here first, but would he have been daring enough to ask Howard for what he wanted? Howard swallowed. He knew exactly what he wanted to ask, but had even less courage than Vince. Chickening out completely, he said,

"You know what, we can pretend you won, since you wanted to so much" Vince looked up from his brooding, surprised,

"Erm, yeah ok…er…" He decided just to do it. A ripple of electricity seethed through him as he mumbled,

"Kiss me". Howard gaped. Did Vince honestly feel the same way? The longer he stood there, shocked, the quicker Vince was chickening out. He couldn't give Howard any eye contact, and stood there blushing, ready to suddenly up and run.

"Vince, I…" He started, but Vince couldn't take it, and just leapt at Howard, locking their lips together in a fierce embrace. Howard was so shocked he couldn't speak, but so elated he kissed back. Vince's heart leapt in happiness and eagerly put his tongue near Howard's mouth, gingerly poking the older man's lips, begging for entry. Howard slid his tongue into Vince's mouth, making Vince inwardly gasp with delight. Howard had certainly gotten better at kissing, although how he didn't know, he'd never seen Howard with a girl. Or a boy. They finished and looked up at each other, Howard running his fingers through Vince's soft hair.

"Hey" Howard smiled at Vince, glad to see him blush slightly and smile,

"Hey," He replied, and said; "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that" Howard smiled back and kissed him on the forehead.

"You know what this maze is called?" Vince shook his head, big blue eyes staring up at the handsome man in front of him, "It's called Aphrodite's Maze. She's the goddess of love" He explained, as Vince looked confused, "And on those plaques, it said that if a couple meet in the middle and declare their love for each other, they'll be together forever" He looked deep into Vince's eyes, which looked tearful, although his voice was steady when he spoke.

"I love you Howard" Howard pulled him into a hug before answering,

"I love you too little man".

They stayed together in the warm embrace, facing a statue of the goddess Aphrodite, as the darkness crept in and the lights in the maze lit up, a shooting star flew over them, symbolizing the start of forever.

**K, I found that ending corny. Anyone else? Lol, please review, it may help me over my writers block ;)**


End file.
